ts-rule-engine

Lightweight rule engine, written in typescript

Supports and tested with

{
  "node": "16.x || 18.x || 20.x",
}

Features

Structure for rule definition
Rerun rules after fact is updated
Stop rule engine on any rule from executing further
Infinite loop prevention with max iterations limit
One time rule execution in sequence
Rule weight for priority
Supports ESM and CommonJS

Installation

npm install ts-rule-engine
yarn add ts-rule-engine
pnpm add ts-rule-engine

1. Defining a Rule

A rule will consist of a condition and action, id, name and weight. The condition is a function that returns a boolean value. The action is a function that will be executed if the condition is true. The action function will be passed the fact, { rule, stop }. The stop function will stop the rule engine from executing further rules. This way you can control the flow of the rule engine.

import type { Rule } from 'ts-rule-engine'

/* Define fact interface */
interface Fact {
  balance: number
  broke?: boolean
}

/* Define rule */
const rule: Rule<Fact> = {
  id: 1,
  name: 'Rule 1',
  weight: 1,
  condition: (fact) => {
    return fact.balance < 5
  },
  action: (fact, { stop }) => {
    fact.broke = true
    /* stop() will stop the rule engine from executing further rules */
    stop()
  }
}

Higher the weight of the rule, higher the priority of the rule. If the weight is not provided, it will be set to 0 by default and will be executed after all the rules with weight > 0 are executed. If all weights are same, rules will be executed in the order they are added to the rule engine.

2. Defining a Fact

Facts are those input json values on which the rule engine applies its rule to obtain results. A fact can have multiple attributes as you decide.

A sample Fact may look like

/* Define fact interface */
interface Fact {
  application: string
  cost: number
  license?: string
  description?: string
}

/* Define fact */
const fact: Fact = {
  application: 'ts-rule-engine',
  cost: 0
}

3. Using the Rule Engine

The example below shows how to use the rule engine to apply a sample rule on a specific fact. Rules can be fed into the rule engine as Array of rules or as an individual rule object.

import { RuleEngine } from 'ts-rule-engine'

/* Define fact */
const fact: Fact = {
  application: 'ts-rule-engine',
  cost: 0,
  license: '',
  description: ''
}

/* Define rule */
const rule: Rule<Fact> = {
  condition: (fact) => {
    return fact.cost === 0
  },
  consequence: (fact) => {
    fact.license = 'MIT'
    fact.description = 'License originating at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the late 1980s'
    fact.stop()
  },
};

/* Creating Rule Engine instance */
const engine = new RuleEngine(fact)
engine.addRule(rule)
/* For multiple rules, use engine.addRules(rules) */
await engine.run()

console.log(fact)
/*
{
  application: 'ts-rule-engine',
  cost: 0,
  license: 'MIT',
  reason: 'License originating at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the late 1980s'
}
*/